Some 4,200 police and gendarmes are mobilized in the district of Barbès, north of Paris, to disperse the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who began to gather early Saturday afternoon, despite the ban taken by the prefecture from police.
Other gatherings take place across France.
The authorities' ban, confirmed in court, did not stop them.
Supporters for the Palestinians began to gather in Paris on Saturday afternoon, immediately dispersed by law enforcement, while several other authorized gatherings took place across France.
"Because we refuse to silence our solidarity with the Palestinians, and that we will not be prevented from demonstrating, we will be present (at the metro) Barbès" Saturday "at 3 pm", had launched the Association of Palestinians in Ile- de-France, as well as around thirty other organizations, such as Attac, the Paris-Banlieue Antifascist Action, the New Anticapitalist Party.
Verbalization and water cannon
Shortly before 3 p.m., on site, the massive police deployment was visible throughout the neighborhood.
4,200 police and gendarmes are mobilized, according to the police headquarters, who have instructions for "immediate dispersal" as soon as demonstrators try to regroup, using the "water launcher", or to issue a ticket, up to 135 euros .
"Evacuate the place", calls a policeman in a red Megaphone Place du Château.
The water cannon was used, noted AFP journalists, according to which face to face between demonstrators and the police took place in small streets leading to Boulevard Barbès (18th arrondissement).
Checks took place on the surrounding boulevard by the police, who filtered pedestrians wanting to go to the Barbès crossroads.
Impressive police force in #Barbes after the call for a rally in support of the Palestinian people, banned by the authorities.
Several water cannons, closed metro stations, police and gendarmes by the hundreds.
# Palestinepic.twitter.com / 1taNomKT7K
- Remy Buisine (@RemyBuisine) May 15, 2021
The water cannon is used at #Barbes against the demonstrators.
# Palestinepic.twitter.com / VaTph2fd4W
- Remy Buisine (@RemyBuisine) May 15, 2021
A ban on demonstrating
The police headquarters issued an order to close shops in the Barbès-Rochechouart sector, from noon. The ban on demonstrating in the capital was taken Thursday evening by the Paris police prefect, Didier Lallement, at the request of the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin for "risk of unrest". It was put forward the precedent of 2014, when a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Paris had degenerated into urban violence.
The organizers held a press conference early in the afternoon to reaffirm their "solidarity" as, in the Palestinian territories, "the massacre continues". One of the organizers Walid Attalah repeated their intention to demonstrate "peacefully", up to the Place de la Bastille, and denounced the attitude of the authorities: "they clearly want to let the situation deteriorate and that there be excesses ", he said. "All over the world, demonstrations of support have been held, France is an exception, it is also against (that) that we are mobilizing", hammered Julien Salingue (NPA), another organizer.
Seized in interim relief by the Association of Palestinians in Ile-de-France, the administrative court confirmed this ban on Friday. The administrative court justified its decision by arguing that the context "both international and domestic" did not allow "to estimate that the risks of serious disturbances" would not "be as important or even greater than those found in 2014". Another association, which had also planned a demonstration in another district of Paris, the ban of which was also confirmed by the administrative court, lodged an appeal with the Council of State, examined from 1 p.m.
"France is the only democratic country to ban these demonstrations," protested Me Sefen Guez Guez, Me Dominique Cochain and Me Ouadie Elhamamouchi, lawyers for the Association of Palestinians in Ile-de-France. The protest was originally planned to commemorate the Nakba, the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians upon the creation of Israel in 1948.
Other events have been banned, such as in Nice, or in Aubervilliers and Montreuil in Seine-Saint-Denis. On the other hand, demonstrations or gatherings have been authorized in many cities. Thus, several hundred people, Palestinian flags - even umbrellas of the same colors - in hand, gathered in the rain in Toulouse to express their opposition to "colonialism, racism and apartheid". "Save Gaza", "no one is free when others are oppressed" or "Palestinian lives matter" read the signs.
About 200 people, according to the Hérault prefecture, gathered in Montpellier.
Gatherings were also planned in Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Nantes, Rennes, Strasbourg, Lille, Metz or Saint-Etienne.
"We don't want a hate crisis in the streets of the French Republic"
The government spokesman described the decision to ban the Paris demonstration as "pragmatic".
"We do not want there to be scenes of violence, we do not want to import a conflict on French soil, we do not want a hate crisis in the streets of the French Republic", declared Gabriel Attal, visiting Marseille.
The affair divides the political class, between support of the request of the government - primarily in the majority, on the right and the extreme right - and those which denounce an “unacceptable” ban, led by La France insoumise (LFI).
The calls for demonstrations come against the backdrop of a military escalation unprecedented in recent days since 2014 between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas, in and around the Gaza Strip, and violence in mixed Arab and Jewish Israeli towns.
This conflict has left more than 130 Palestinians dead since Monday, including some 40 children, and hundreds of wounded in the Gaza Strip, according to a latest Palestinian report.
In Israel, nine people were killed including a child and nearly 600 injured.